Heroes of the East/ Shaolin Challenges Ninja trailer

This is a great martial arts movie, if a bit (hah) biased on the Chinese side. Several plot elements were incorporated into Jet Li's remake FIST OF LEGEND, but I don't think there were many wires used here. It's the Romeo and Juliet story, if Romeo and Juliet lasted longer than three days and lived. Oops, spoiler warning for anyone who doesn't know.

Two movies I'm supposed to like more than I do...

There are always movies that are very popular for reasons that escape me.  This is something that happens to everyone at one time or another, and we all have reasons for not liking various movies- we saw them with the wrong person, we were in a bad mood, etc and so on.   All those reasons are perfectly understandable to reasonable people most of the time. 

And then there are movies we think we should like and for some reason find only mildly entertaining.  Here are two movies I do enjoy to some degree but just can't love like lots of other people seem to think it's normal to do.  I won't even get into the movies I don't like at all that are ever so popular with many people.  I mean, I enjoy all the Lord of the Rings movies but don't ever feel the need to own them or watch them more than once a decade.  Same with Harry Potter or even many superhero movies.  Go figure on that one, huh?

Ninja in the Dragon's Den Trailer

This is a rather misleading trailer... one might think this is a brand new movie rather than one that's over 30 years old. I hadn't seen it growing up, but it sure is one fun action packed flick. It's pretty cool in that the Japanese aren't really the bad guys this time. Finally a team up movie between China and Japan.

Despicable Me 2 part 2

Finally finished watching this fun sequel.  Despite the best efforts of the AVL, Gru actually does discover who the mysterious new super villain is and also contends with the even harder difficulty of asking Lucy for a date.

The Invisible Boy 1957 (Trailer)

This was one of those movies I always read about. Usually it was in conjunction with THE FORBIDDEN PLANET and how popular Robby was/is. It never aired in my area, which is odd, since FB was a staple on Channel 2. It might have aired sometime when I was away during the summer. It was released on DVD with FB a while back, so that's where I finally got to see the movie.

Doom Patrol #123

I bought this issue of the Doom Patrol in early 73 (though I seem to remember it being quite warm, weird) and I got it because it was a sequel to this story, which I had gotten in the previous month or so.  I had really enjoyed this "new" group of heroes.  The villain was really cool too.  It was a neat time in DC Comics history, since they were reprinting all sorts of comics I had never seen before, like this, the Metal Men and some early Legion of Super Heroes.  To a kid that loved super teams and seeing new and different heroes this was a great thing.  You never knew what you would find in a spinner rack back in those days.

Happy Birthday, Popeye

On this date in 1929 Popeye the sailor made his debut in the popular "Thimble Theater" comic strip. He wasn't supposed to hang around, but eventually became so popular he took over the strip. Most people don't even know it had a different title nowadays. He also didn't eat spinach to get strong, he just was a very strong person. The spinach thing came later and was popularized in the cartoons.

Batman 66 TV series finally to DVD/Blu Ray

Batman is going to be fun again!  For so many long boring reasons, the '66-68 series has never been released to home video, which is surprising since the character has has two successful movie series in the last three decades.  I'm not much of a fan of either of them, but they made money.  I certainly thought the series would be released long before this, but then this series might have counterpunched the dire Nolan movies right out of the water.  Well, in a perfect would it would have.

Jane's Getting Serious - Jon Astley

I was someone who heard this song long before it became a ketchup/catsup commercial. I never got this LP, but I did get the follow up "The Compleat Angler" which was almost too esoteric and clever for it's own good. I'd like to have both of these albums now. I wonder how hard they are to find?

Despicable Me 2 (2013)

For a wide variety of reasons I didn't see this in the theater when it came out.  Of course, I didn't see the first one either, so there is an historical precedent.  So I'm watching it now, and just about 17 minutes into it I'm quite enjoying it, despite the score being less than memorable (again).

Star Trek animated beginning

When this cartoon debuted, it was a godsend to us Trekkies. We had seen every episode at least three times. Many episodes even more than that. So here we got weekly episodes of all new adventures for two years. It was only 22 episodes, but it was really cool to see most of the original cast back, plus new alien crew members. There were a few sequel episodes to the live action series and loads of interesting ideas.

Posters of Sprocket Monsters

In my previous reviews of my own works, I was mostly happy with the way both issues/books came out.  There were some issues I had but overall I was pretty happy with everything.  I consider it all a learning experience and am sure the next issue of Xenorama will be the best one ever (he said thinking of all the FM blurbs that said that every issue).

Five Element Ninja trailer (1982)

Guess I'm just in a Shaw and ninja mood these days. This is one of three really great ninja movies from Hong Kong, the other two being HEROES OF THE EAST and NINJA IN THE DRAGON'S DEN. Those two movies should be discussed in the future. This has some actual ninjitsu in it, but mostly it's theatrical fighting at it's best. This movie starts out with two clans fighting, and then a samurai is brought in.

RIP Run Run Shaw

Sir Run Run Shaw, the founder of the venerable Shaw Brothers studios passed away yesterday.  Here's an article telling you a bit more about it.  His studio made a lot of great movies, martial arts and otherwise.  I think I can honestly say without these movies I'd not be the person I am today.   I certainly wouldn't have been into martial arts movies like I am, since the Shaws films were always a cut above any other studio at the time.

Inframan US opening

Yeah, it's the opening from the quickly OOP/C&D Sinister Cinema VHS tape from some 15 or 20 years ago or so. I like it more than the original opening, but that could be because I saw it first. It is pretty short and to the point.